View/Open

Year

Permanent link

Metadata

Appears in the following Collection

Abstract

On November 13, 2008, the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq amended the Iraqi Personal Status Law. The amendment passed by the region‟s government affects Article 3 of the Iraqi Personal Status law, which deals with the practice of polygyny. This amendment added new legal conditions to polygyny, further restricting it and making it extremely difficult to practice. The amendment has its supporters and opponents; women for and against polygyny are represented within women‟s organizations, political parties and parliament and all have a reaction to the amendment.

The data collected through fieldwork conducted in spring 2010 in Iraqi Kurdistan argues that the women interviewed claim they know what is best for women in Kurdistan. The anti-polygyny respondents hoped that polygyny would be prohibited, while pro-polygyny respondents desired the opposite. Since the new conditions have made it exceedingly difficult to practice polygyny without banning it outright, both groups are somewhat displeased.

This thesis argues that both pro-polygyny and anti-polygyny respondents wish to own the right to “define” what is best for women in Kurdistan and fight for their views to become representative of women in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and influence the region‟s laws that directly affect a women‟s role in society and her rights as a citizen and member of a family. Both groups view the limiting of polygyny as a disappointment and a victory. This outlook further supports the argument of this thesis; that both pro and anti-polygyny groups see themselves as the true representatives of Kurdish women and regard their view of polygyny as the correct one, and the one that should provide the basis for the region‟s laws which grant and protect the rights of women in the society of the Kurdistan region.